A Finance Blog

Net Worth Update – December 2019

Just like in November I did a horrible job of keeping track of my finances. I’ve decided to use a different system in 2020, called pen & paper. I received 3 pay checks and my net worth increased:

Liquid Assets

Start

End

Change

Cash & Checking

$3,800

$3,300

($500)

Emerg. Fund

$8,400

$8,400

+$0

Savings

$2,100

$1,300

($800)

Brokerage

$3,900

$3,900

+$0

HSA

$3,400

$3,700

+$300

Illiquid Assets

Start

End

Change

Home Eq

$34,000

$40,000

+$6,000

401K

$73,100

$75,800

+$2,700

Roth IRA

$33,500

$34,000

+$500

Debt

Start

End

Change

Loans

($3,100)

($3,100)

+$0

Net

$159,100

$167,300

$8,200

% Change

5.2%

The spending amounts below are incorrect and inflated. I bought gifts and the costs were (mostly) split with family members which isn’t accounted for. I have also done a poor job of keeping my sinking funds organized, so the fact that these purchases were actually budgeted for isn’t reflected either. For simplicity, let’s pretend it was a typical month and that none of the aforementioned snafus happened:

Category

Budget

Actual

Diff

(1)Bills & Utilities

$125

$102

$23 under

(2)Food

$300

$311

$11 over

(3)Medical

$-

$475

$-

(4)Misc

$300

$1,066

$766 over

(5)Sinking Funds

$-

$-

$-

Total (1+2+4+5)

$725

$1,479

$754 over

Total + Medical (3)

$1,954

$1,229 over

Based on incorrect assumptions, it was a terrible month in which I went well over budget. In actuality, the overspending was planned and saved for in sinking funds (which is why my net worth statement reflects an $800 decrease in savings). I’ll do better with keeping track of things in 2020. Apologies for a sloppy update for November & December 2019. Happy New Year!